To be born is a very great happiness. How many children are not born? They fail on the way to birth. How many are destroyed in the womb? How many are never even conceived to start with? And therefore we have to thank Hashem for making us. Of course most people never think about that, but for a servant of Hashem that's one of the first duties. We bend our knees to our Maker, our Creator for the great happiness that we came into existence. We could have been something else. All the chemicals that compose our body could very easily have been formed into an alligator or a tree. And nevertheless Hashem arranged those chemicals into the form of a human body, a great privilege indeed for each of us. -- Ohr Avigdor Shaar Avodas Elokim